Lord Mhoram

Re: Need a new team name. I was planning on it, but I usually like to ponder these things for a while, and my creative juices were just completely dry there, and I was looking for a jumpstart. Which I got. I've seen a number here I really like, and some that have led me into thoughts of other good ones.

Re: Need a new team name. There are definately a few names here I 'll bounce of the rest of the group next time we meet. For those interested here is a link to the characters (they are the group on the bottom of the page). Note that there will be revision on Deadboy at some point shortly. The Characters

Re: Need a new team name. But teenagers, especially rebellous ones, would try for something shocking or edgy. :-) That was one of the reasons I came up with TV's name. I was thinking what a 17 year old speedster would call himself, pondering the teen infatuation with danger and Terminal Velocity came to mind. Thanks for all the input guys.

Re: Need a new team name. Actually we don't know why we are together yet. We haven't played the first session (that's next week). The GM and I have been listening to the character concepts (Terminal Velocity is mine - dark background, but bright in play - I plan to try and have him come off like he was written by Busiek or Johns). The original idea was the the Champions got trashed and a crippled Defender was recruiting a new team, and put out an open call. The GM looked at the characters and said "That's tossed out, Defender would just say "Dont call us, we'll call you". So I'm not sure exactly where he is going. As I understand it, we will be a new superteam brought together by something beyond all of us. We are going to be superheroes rather than people in costumes with superpowers. My character would cultivate relationships with the press, and local police and things like Until and Primus. Others in the team would not (notably Blindside). We are all mutants, and both Genocide and VIPER are hunteds, but the GM is _completely_ tired of anti-mutant hysteria. In his world that passed in the 70s- Genocide is viewed not unlike Neonazis. So the social aspect of Marvel Mutantdom will not be a big thing in the campaign. 2 of the characters are living on thier own with bad background (not sure about deadboy - he might be too) with one (me) having to keep an eye out for mom. After all the discussions online here about the Iron age, and what it is, what comics represent it ect.... it's now a running gag- each time a new antisocial/dark something happens from one of the characters, one of us rolls the eyes and say "We're an Iron Age comic." When Blindside's dad was a cyborg, I asked if he had a big gun. The answer was yes, so I said something about Image, to which my wife (and the player of character Jeopardy) replied "Abosolutly not. We are not an Image Comic, Jeopardy's physical dimensions fall within the boundries of reality." She suggested "Nior" as a name for the group. Hope that helps.

Here we go, just starting play in a new game. We need a team name... here is the team. It was intended to be a four color campaign, but the character choices ended up a little darker, and the GM decided to roll with it. 1- Terminal Velocity. Speedster, black and red costume with goggles. Fairly cheerful character, however he is the illigetamte son of a European superterrorist (Shrike from European enemies) and a British Superhero. The superhero's wife left him and set him up to be killed by Eurostar. Her son is a supervillian (And my archnemesis) 18 or 19 years old 2) - Jeopardy. A brick/EP/minor mentalist. She originally had some basic energy absorbtion powers, got kidnapped by an evil corporation who hooked her up to a supercharger- and her sister and best friend and turned it on. One ended up dead, the other a vegatable; and Jep ended up with thier powers (brick and telepathy). She is out for vengence against them, hiding in plain sight as a superhero. 17 years old 3)- Blindside. Foster child, found shis real parents were his father was Joseph Hansen a newspaper photographer turned into Diviner a cyborg supervillain, his mother was Lisa Croft a newspaper reporter turned into Silver Thorn a brick government employed superhero.He worked a little for VIPER and got tired of being bossed around so much he turned on them and helped the government capture some of them. Has a problem with authority figures, and darkness powers. 15 years old 4)- Deadboy the Goth hero. Pale, darkhair and causes an energy drain around him. Things get dim, and people get tired. He plays in a band (Goth, natch) and also has problems with authourity. 19 years old.

Re: Non-combatant campaigns? I've played games with that as a side rather than the focus. If you are looking for game mechanics to cover that you might check out the Reparte rules in Broken Kingdoms, a Fantas Hero E-book. (The setting itself is also very nice).

Re: Gaming "Outside the Box" I played in a game where PCs were individually working with the GM to do secret things with the characters - not player vs player - but plot ideas. We had one character who was kidnapped by the bad guys, and when he returned he was a clone, but we didn't know that. He had something of a personality adjustment (the character was actually sort of a twit, and was now nicer) but when the reveal came, it was a nice surprise. About the same time I told the GM I wanted to run a long term plot for my character. I was playing Black Cat (see my avatar above). Originally a Martial Artists with Darkforce powers- I wanted her to loose her powers, but in a dramatic way so.... She got killed (Dive for cover to save another character). The PCs went looking in other dimensions for the soul of another NPC and found Cat's Soul. She came back but had lost all of the MA ability (in actuality the powers were possessing the character but even she didn't know that. As time went on, I played her nastier and nastier; very slowly over the course of about 6 months. Cat had a thing about racism and she killed the leader of a neonazi supergroup. The team gets back to base and a very large argument ensues. Cat decides to take them all into the danger room to let off steam (she was the teams combat trainer), whereupon she trashes the rest of team and goes to kill a local industrialist that has been a thorn in thier side since the beginning of the game. She then get depowered and realized she had been possessed. No one else knew all the details there until the reveal. The reaction when Cat killed the nazi was priceless.

Re: Your Gaming Group's Jargon We use the "Cruelty Knob" and "Recap Button" taken from Aaron Allston's website. The recap button is used when one character has information, but all the players were there to hear the information being given to the player of said character- so that character comes back to the rest of the group and pushes the recap button. Cruelty knob is just how nasty the GM is feeling that day. We actually have a little paper plate numbered one to ten with a below "1" labelled easy and an above 10 labeled "excessive". This is tacked to the wall and a little arrow is tacked there as well, and when the GM comes into the room he dials the knob to let everyone know what is in store for them. "Brick a roll" - to really fail the roll, based on bricks not usually having low skill rolls or CVs. "Go Bizzare" from the old champions minus article. Usually applied to a player when he does something really strange. "Spang" sound effect of a character's defences completely absorbing the attack, quoted by the player of said character. Also used in other situations describing an attack that doesn't work "That attack just spanged off of me". "These dice are out of charges" Used after a group of dice have rolled badly a few times in succession. "Liberate the Bar" - to go off on a really strange tangent instead of following the plot. We had a short run SF Bug wars kind of game, and the three of us that played got into a really off the wall goofy kind of playstyle (when the GM originally intended something somewhat serious). The characters drank to excess and when they were dropped somewhere to deal with the bugs the first thing in the town they would do would be to go liberate the bar from the dirty bugs. " hit in the 13/aim for the 13" reference to the hit location tables. This has become the standard way to describe a groin shot, even in games where hit locations are not used. "That's reformed powergamer" Usually said by me, after I build something fairly munchkin. Early in my Champions career I was a really bad minmaxer, but grew out of it; but I still have a habit of squeezing every last point out of a character. "Shut up Wesley" Usually said to a character/player who just restating the blindingly obvious. "Rolled a 3/rolled an 18/made or failed a roll" Said by or about a player who does something really good or really bad. A player comes up with the perfect way to defeat the bad guy so someone tells the player (not the character), "you rolled a three there" or someone does something very stupid "You bricked your int roll didn't you". Used this one outside gaming. My wife and I walking down an icy sidewalk and I start to slip, slide my feet and catch myself and look at her and say "I made my Dex roll"

Re: CLOWN for 5th Champions While this is true to an extent, a careful GM can work that to his advantage. One darkish batman type character IMC became the target for CLOWN (they decided she had no sense of humor). She got very irritated and angry for a while, and then decided to strike back. Broke into thier base, and changed all of thier gimmicks, put comical remarks in all the bedrooms, and reprogrammed the computer. She then hijacked the airwaves with a CLOWN cartoon which made them look stupid. They declared her cured of her lack of sense of humor and much later in the game when a really _serious_ villian was causing her problems she called them into to help humiliate him. But I do agree that kind of situation takes a lot more work by both the GM and Player to pull off. Mostly I use CLOWN as characters that go after NPCs. If the PCs get involved they get a little fun poked at them but not mcuh.

Re: Every good four color supers games needs: (on with the thread hijack) I second the above sentiment, strongly. I liked a lot of the stuff in Freedom City, but Crooks got a fairly "meh" reaction from me. The SAS characters were ones I could sink my teeth into. (back to on topic) Something that popped up in DC, rather than marvel but- Cosmic entities that are the extension of a rather thinly vieled Christian God (the Seventies Spectre is a good example). Big huge cosmic entities with a basic weakness that allows the weaker earth heroes to win/achieve thier goal. Alien/Extra planar gods that are about on par with the rest of the superhero characters in terms of power (lotsa Kirby type guys).

Re: Superhero Images Here is Blackcat, as imagined by Blaine Taggart about 2 years ago. We were chatting, and I had Cat's old sheet and adventure record online, and he went home, read it all, and was inspired to do this.

Re: New Book: The Algernon Files

Re: New Book: The Algernon Files Is this going to be available through normal distribution methods for stores to order (primarily looking at ACD here)? I wouldn't mind having a copy on shelf at the store I work at --- well, that and the fact that if we can get it that way, I can get my copy at cost

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER I enjoy King, but he is very hit and miss for me. Most of his early work, and the Bachman stuff is great. After that, it depends on the book. And while his movies have much suckitude the TV series based on his work are very nice. I just finished ready F Paul Wilson's The Haunted Air (a Repairman Jack book). For those that like supernatural adventure Wilson is amazing; well actually he is amazing anyway. Baseball is boredom incarnate.

Re: Give me your best... One that a friend of mine used in a dimhopping game - a superhero game, using superhero tropes. It is pretty standard that powers kick on when exposed to radiation, or when major odd accidents happen. Well in WW2, when the bombs were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima there was a huge wave of superpowered people as a result, and Japan took over the world.

Re: Hero Character Portfolio -- What Do *You* Want To See? As a free PDF this would be cool. I don't think that I would ever pay for such a product; aside from the obseessive collective need of owning one of every HERO product, and even then it would likely sit on my shelf unopened.

Re: What would your character do (65?) -Recruiting pitch Both Blackcat and Ballistic are old warhorses in the super biz (each have been played for over 10 years and are on scads of points). Ballisitc would jet on over to Homestead and talk to them about organizing both the techs and the mystics and set up comminications between teams, and call in old friends to help out. Blackcat (her old teams tactician, combat leader and trainer) would show up to be the overtrainer for the teams, and head tactician (her skill rolls there are in the 18/19 or less level, in her home campaign she ended up the worlds greatest supers tactician and strategist). She would go into her "totally focused" mode and would spend most every waking minute working on the problem Defender alluded to, and how best to manage the teams.

Re: What Would Your Character Do? #64: Shooting Star Ballistic would fly over, land in front of the guy, use his translation spell, and talk to him. He would be ready for fisticuffs or worse at a moments notice. Blackcat would come up to him, and try using gestures and basic communication to get some sort of connection. If the guy attacked, she'd paste him.

Re: What superhero world concept are you tired of seeing? I'm tired of the whole "nasty superhero" stuff. Take the Punisher, take the Authority and flush them all away.

Re: What have you used Hero for? Okay let's see some I've GMed, some I have co GMed, and some I have played in. Superhero. Campaign started at 250 ended at about 900. Lasted almost 13 years; so just about every playstyle was used, from beginning supers to JLA/Avengers level. In some cases the same characters throughout the whole shebang. Postapocalyptic - but a postapoc of a superhero world, so superpowers were around. Just no tights and crimes. Survival and stuff. Transworld Fantasy. Two inter-related 3-4 year games, one being a sequal to the other. Original starting points were 100+100 (I wanted the "heroes of the age" kinda thing). We had a couple of natives, a cyberpunk, and old west doctor and a low powered superhero. The sequal campaign (set at about 450, as three of the characters were leftovers from the first game) were the cyber, a native and the old west doc from the original and now added a 30's pulpish Cthulu investigator (his dispells in the Fantasy world were totally earth shattering), a Jedi, a modern action adventure character (cross betweeen McGyver and Bond) and a Starship troopers armored SF guy (he was actually mostly a villian). That one sorta spanned everything. A really odd SF game. The main characters were a band, travelling from town to town, bar to bar making money as musicians and help for hire. The world was very old west (this was years before Firefly thank you) with Mecha replacing horses. So they were a Mecha driving bar band. The world had dinosaurs (this was years before that d20 Dinowestern setting thank you) and they had a lot of problems there too. An actually sports based dueling arena kind of game that mixed Car wars, mecha dueling and sport martial arts (three events that each character had to be passable at - team victories). A long running Ninja Hero game that ended fairly wild after a few years. A "tech stopped working magic started" kind of apocalyptic thing based on Ariel by Stephen R Boyett. Half the group moved before it started going really well, and will be the first game I start up again when the group gets to me GMing again. A Star Trek/Star Wars crossover game. The crew were a combined Alpha quadrant crew (you had some Romulans and some Klingons on the ship besides Fed) that went through a wormhole created by the harmonic warp drive and ended up in the Star Wars Universe. A couple of low powered supers in the mold of "no costumes, you are the first superpowered people in the world" kind of thing. The one I played in I ran a kid (a SF fanatic) who got telepathy, telekenesis, and some mentally derived energy manipulation. He thought he was a Jedi.

Re: Recamended Reading I'm currently rereading the Mallorean. Yeah Eddings can get repetitive, but he is the best in light fantasy for summer popcorn movie dialoge. I love his stuff for the interaction of characters. I also think he wrote the Elenemium because he liked Mandollaran so much he wanted a smarter version for the main character. Other recomends The tales of Bahzal Bahnakson by David Weber. Oath of Swords War Gods Own and the upcoming Windriders Oath. Very nice and very fun. The first two are aviable as free downloads from the Baen Free Libarary. Seconded on the Misplaced Legion and its sequals. The Krispos books by the same author are set in the same world, about 500 years before the events of the legion books and are very nice as well.

Whereas I look at it this way- code vs _killing_. Demons are not alive (depending on campaign world- the usual trope of them going back to the home plane thing), undead are not alive; in fact they are already dead, the character is just keeping them from moving around.

The things that bug me about players... Those that refuse to work within my worlds. I build very detailed and oftimes quirky campaign worlds- I try to spend at least an entire session with each player to get a concept they really like, that fits my world. If my world doesn't have Elves or anything like them, no you cannot play an Elf. No, superpowers materilized in the world only 10 years ago, you cannot play a third generation mutant. Cheaters- those that misrepresent thier dice rolls, or combat values. I run games at the FLGS I work at occasionally and get these way to often. People who treat the game as a wargame or tactical exercise. I understand that in combat, but not in the entire game. Players who are way to serious about gaming. I game to spend time with friends, as do the rest of our group. Gaming is just how we share time. So in a 5 hour session, maybe 3 hours of it is gaming. So what, we are there for the fun of being together.

This reminds me of a warstory I read (I think on RPG net but not sure) of a GM who had a player like this, always looking to kill or mess up the party, worked contrary to the rest of the players and so on, and the GM was very tired of it. So, when the new campaign started, he told this player, in secret, that the character was actually a secret agent for an invading alien force, and he was working undercover with the group to get all thier information, and that this might go on for years. The player loved it, and worked well in the group and never did anything disharmonious. Somehow the alien invasion subplot never did materialize.

I ran a normal skill max doubling rule in my FH game I ran for 8 years. I wanted to emphasise characteristics to a point, so the doubling point was a roll of (9 + ((cha/5) x2)). So if you skill roll was a 13 or less you doubled cost at a 17. If you had a 15- base you doubled at 21 or less. Once your skill role was at the double cost level, you had to apply twice as many skill levels to get an effect (ie two 8 pt levels to get a +1 on that skill). Seemed to work fairly well for what I was after.